Hurting in the Church:
A Way Forward for Wounded Catholics
By Fr. Thomas Berg
Series Page
Book Description




Far too many Catholics have had painful experiences in the Church, and many have simply opted to walk away. Fr. Berg opens his book with the story of the painful and life-changing crisis he experienced in the Church that ultimately, against the odds, led him to love the Church more intensely notwithstanding the sinfulness of its members. Along with his own story, Fr. Berg intertwines the stories of other Catholics who have themselves experienced life-changing hurts, but who, in Jesus, found healing. Riding the momentum of the Year of Mercy, Fr. Berg offers these reflections as a necessary examination of conscience, and a clarion call to Catholics to become healers of an ailing inner Catholic culture, to heed Pope Francis’s call to incite a revolution of tenderness in our faith communities. (Our Sunday Visitor)

Published by Our Sunday Visitor

Purchase at Ben McNally Books
366 Bay Street
Toronto, ON
M5H 4B2
416-361-0032
My Take
Far too many Catholics have had painful experiences in the Church, and many have simply opted to walk away. Vice-rector of St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, NY and former Legionary of Christ, Fr. Thomas Berg, takes an utterly honest look at the suffering of Catholics at the hands of their own church, and offers a path to healing.
About the author
Fr. Thomas Berg is a Roman Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of New York. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he earned a B.A. in Spanish Language and Literature at Marquette, and an M.A. in Liberal Studies from Wesleyan University before earning a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Rome’s Pontifical University Regina Apostolorum. He currently serves as professor of moral theology vice-rector at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers, New York. An avid runner, hiker, and cigar aficionado, he escapes as often as he can to Cape May in New Jersey.
“Hurting in the Church provides a psychologically wise and spiritually profound path forward for Catholics who have been abused, traumatized, or wounded by other Catholics—especially those in leadership. Father Berg writes out of his own and others’ personal experiences of finding surprising and powerful grace and healing in the darkest of places. Chapter ten, on how to recover one’s belief in and love for the Church, is worth the price of the book alone!”

Sherry Weddell
— Author of “Forming Intentional Disciples”